Our First Alice Video this year.

This is so time consuming to do but truckloads of fun. This movie trailer is supposedly the precursor to the full movie!! We will wait and see. (Made by Year 7 and 8's)

Scary scary scary!

This is why we need to teach listening and thinking skills along with communication skills.

Random Ideas Generator

This is quite a useful wee tool for generating random ideas. It is along the lines of deBono's thinking games or Tony Ryan's Thinkers Keys.

You click on the button and the generator spits out three words. Great for developing creative thinking in your students. I can see it being used to generate creative writing ideas or for oral language.

Just be prepared though. I came across one word that I thought was inappropriate for classroom use.

Thanks Kevin for the tip.

Educational Philosophy

We are entering a review of our school charter and we've been asked to bring our educational philosophy to staff meeting tomorrow. I'm not able to be there due to another appointment but I actually like thinking about this sort of stuff (sad I know) so I had a go at trying to represent what I believe about education in an inspiration mind map. This is still a work in progress of course. It always will be but I'd love any comments on what you think I mean or whether you agree or disagree with me.

Mmmmm! 8 Things!

Now here's a challenge to me. I feel honored to have been tagged to add to the whole "8 things blogo round." Cheers. It does make me feel connected. Thanks Chris and Rachel and Greg.

But.....

I hate chain letters and I have no idea what to write and pretty much everyone in my bloglines has already been tagged, so.... in the spirit of wanting to extend a hand of friendship to anyone anywhere I will try to add 8 random things and if you read this and want to communicate consider yourself invited to participate. If you leave me a comment I'll visit your blog and interact with you too.

So 8 Things...

1. My first car was a Morris Minor with indicators that popped out from between the doors. I bought it for $50.00 and drove it home and never drove it again.
2. A few years ago we drove from Glasgow to London in one day in a car that kept jumping out of fifth gear. Most annoying.
3. I dislike gardening.
4. I was living in Dorset (UK) on September 11th 2001 and have never felt so far away from home.
5. I took a holiday around the South Island once and took heaps of photographs (with no film in the camera)
6. I love digital cameras.
7. The worst job I have ever worked was picking rubbish out of a pile of glass waiting to be recycled.
8. I left my power cord at school and the laptop is about to hibernate.

Buffalo vs Lion vs Crocodile

In case you didn't catch this on CNN or the TV news this video is fantastic to watch. We thought we would show it to the class and talk about the power of a group to stand up to bullies.